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Funding for graduate programs still available for international students
A further and very recent innovation on the more commercial side of funding international students is the introduction of banks making specific arrangements with individual universities for the exclusive benefit of their international students. Earlier this year, a number of US universities, including the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University concluded months of careful negotiation to replace their commercial funding agreements, that had become unworkable in the current financial circumstances, with new schemes in association with high profile and, perhaps more importantly, financially secure banks. Harvard University’s agreement with JPMorgan Chase now provides graduate and professional students with access to private educational loans where they are not eligible for the USA’s federal loan schemes.
Dan Shore, Harvard’s Chief Financial Officer believes that by making an agreement with a commercial finance provider, the recruitment of international graduate students to one of the most famous universities in the world is secure. “We have a significant international student population and we pride ourselves on the contributions these students make to a diverse campus. With this agreement we are pleased to be able to say, once again, that a Harvard graduate education remains accessible to all talented students, regardless of where they live."
It is likely that more universities around the world will follow the Harvard lead and develop partnerships with some of the more stable international banks to facilitate the mobility of graduate students to either their masters or PhD programs. The advantages of such schemes are clear – with universities undertaking to share the risk of providing loans to international customers, students are able to access previously protected sources of funding and benefit from their often reduced rates of interest payments. Perhaps more importantly with these institutional agreements, the need for a local co-signatory is abandoned. Students no longer need a local sponsor other than their intended place of study – the university or grad school will take on that role.
International students interested in pursuing their masters or PhD programs overseas continue to have a range of funding options open to them.
Although the financial crisis has altered the economic reality for many of us, international students interested in pursuing their masters or PhD programs overseas continue to have a range of funding options open to them. With the large international scholarship schemes continuing for the foreseeable future, albeit with the possibility of increased levels of competition for the same number of awards, and banks offering a range of opportunities for students opting for specific universities or countries, the picture for international grad students may not appear to be as bleak as at first sight.
And despite these changed economic times, the rules for funding your international graduate study remain the same – plan ahead so that you can meet any required deadlines; remain flexible in case you are not successful with all of your funding applications; and look at all the options – there continue to be many options to fund your masters or PhD program.
